Iran’s e-commerce industry has a new competitor in 2015 who is going to shake up the status quo. The new app is called Lendem short for “lend them” and aims to shake up how things are traded and swapped online. The new startup’s mission is, as they state, “to break the fences around people and make their lives easier by lowering the cost of life.”
The idea of not trading but swapping is pretty new to Iran. There is no cooperative which facilitates loaning personal items to each other currently. This new system does seem “out there” when you consider things which usually work in Iran.
Lendem states it is a solution that people can find the things that they want, from the people that they know, and receive it from them physically.
The website states that the items which are shared on the site include physical items like books, skies and camera accessories to files like movies, games, DVDs amongst some of the items.
It was created by a trio of three web developers in their twenties, with an experience in software engineering, computer science and cloud computing. The trio includes graduates from Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran and Australia’s Melbourne University.
The app is directly available from their website at lendem.ir and also online through the cafébazaar app. They haven’t stated if they intend to create an Apple iOS or windows phone variant for their phone, but that could be coming soon. You can also access the website through standard computer browsers.
Lendem is one of the initial groups of start-up companies working with Tehran’s accelerator program, Avatech. As part of the fledgling business accelerator program, new budding business people are offered an initial round of funding called “seed funding,” which kick starts their businesses. The local accelerator also mentors the new business owners and steers them and their new businesses to profit.
